Christmas Decorations North Vernon IN

Local resource for Christmas decorations in North Vernon. Includes detailed information on local businesses that provide access to holiday decorations, as well as advice and content on decoration and party ideas for the winter holidays.

Christmas Traditions

Christmas Traditions

There are as many Christmas traditions as there are families that celebrate this festive Christian winter holiday. Here is look at some of the most popular traditions and the folklore behind them.

The Christmas Tree

Nothing says Christmas time more than a fragrant young fir tree adorned with twinkling lights, smiling angels and bright colored ornaments. The legend of the Christmas tree can be traced back to the early 8th century, when an English missionary named Saint Boniface interrupted a group of pagan men about to cut down an oak tree to be used for a human sacrifice. In felling the tree, Saint Boniface revealed beneath it a young fir tree. He told the pagans that this sapling, with its branches pointing upward toward Heaven, represented the Holy child.

The legend of Saint Boniface was codified in 1539, when the records of the Cathedral of Strasbourg mention erecting a Christmas tree. During the later half of the 16th century, other churches began erecting Christmas trees -- small fir trees decorated with apples, dates, nuts, and other sweet treats. By the 17th century, the tradition had migrated into people's homes. Today more than 30 million live Christmas trees are sold in America each year.

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Additional Christmas Traditions

Poinsettias

Poinsettias, with their ruby-colored, star-shaped leaves, are ubiquitous holiday decorations during the Christmas season. More info...

Poinsettias: The Horticultural History of the Christmas Plant

Poinsettias

The Horticultural History of the Christmas Plant

Poinsettias, with their ruby-colored, star-shaped leaves, are ubiquitous holiday decorations during the Christmas season. Sales of the plant, which is native to Mexico, run more than $200 million a year, with the bulk of those sales made during the month of December.

But what does this pretty little plant -- falsely rumored to be poisonous -- have to do with Christmas? Some say the star-shaped leaves of the poinsettia symbolize the Star of Bethlehem. According to the Christmas story, the Star of Bethlehem led the three wise men to the manger where the baby Jesus was born.

Another Christmas connection for the poinsettia is linked to the plant's Mexican origin. First discovered by the early Aztecs, the poinsettia has long been associated as an Indian symbol of purity. When the Spanish conquistadors conquered Mexico and converted the Aztecs to Christianity, the power of the poinsettia was also transformed.

Mexican legend tells of an impoverished girl, who had nothing to offer on the alter to Jesus at Christmas Eve other than weeds. Encouraged nonetheless by her priests to give of her spirit, she brought the weeds to her church. Once inside, the weeds miraculously blossomed into a beautiful poinsettia plant. In Mexico, the poinsettia plant is called Flores de Noche Buena, Spanish for "flowers of the holy night".

It was in the early 1800s that the plant was given its English name, after Joel R. Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico in the early 1800s. Poinsett was the first to bring the plant to U.S. soil, having transplanted cuttings from the red beauty back to his home state of South Carolina.

In the early 1900s, the state of California began cultivating the poinsettia for indoor markets. The family of the original producer, Albert Ecke, is still the leading cultivator of the plant, although poinsettias are now grown and sold in all fifty states.

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